


Liar

by br00tle



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, I cant write romance, because blue man hot, but I will try
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27797770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/br00tle/pseuds/br00tle
Summary: Some rebellions are built on hope, some are built on lies.
Relationships: Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Let's just start with, not a single bit of this is accurate with the lore in this franchise. So if you came for that- sorry :(

A girl- no, a woman, treks the forests of Kashyyyk with a blaster far too large for her small frame clutched in arms. She's not too sure if she even knows how to fire the blaster, but there wasn’t an option to refuse when it was handed to her. It didn’t matter, she didn’t even understand her reason for being on the forest planet. The wookie’s situation was thoroughly fucked, no one could save them- especially not a barely organized rebellion fighting against the entire galactic empire. No one. 

So when it did happen, mere hours after the woman was stationed at the edge of the forest, and troopers flanked her, she still fired away. Refusing to surrender. Of course, it didn’t work. For every one member of the rebellion on this damn forest planet there were at least 30 stormtroopers in return. Just for a mere second the woman smiles as she hits a single trooper with a shot before she's sent tumbling down, frozen by a searing pain in her right thigh. 

Things were happening, white cald feet rushed past her as she lay on the ground playing dead. There's shouting and wookies screaming and blaster fire and stars, my leg hurts! The woman feverishly goes in to reach her thigh, trying to figure out where exactly she had been shot. 

“Yeah, this one’s still alive!” a modulated shout comes from just a few meters away from the injured woman and she nearly screams in pure frustration. She scrambled to her feet, but her legs gave out and it's too late now, anyway. She's stunned. 

***

When the woman does wake up, part of her is grateful she isn’t dead, but that feeling quickly fades as she realizes whatever comes for the next is going to be far, far worse than any death she could imagine. 

The imperial holding cell was small and barron, a small sink/toilet sat in the corner but other than that the room was completely empty. Not even a bed. That meant she wouldn't be staying long, not that she hoped too but still. 

This is where I die?

The door opens and a man clad in gray saunters in. He’s older and appears tired, but doesn’t even spare her a glance as he walks in. This definitely wasn’t the first rebel he’s seen today. 

“Name?” He sighs. 

“Xenia.” 

He looks up from his datapad and narrows his eyes, “Full name.”

“Xenia Quinn.” She spoke, arms crossed. Her tone was impassive but what was a name going to give them? 

“Hmm,” he presses his lips together and types for a second. Then a second pans out to a minute. And right before one minute becomes two, the man speaks again, “You have quite the record, Ms. Quinn.”

“Don’t we all?” Xenia huffs out, shaking her head, “Save yourself some time, toss me out of an airlock.”

The man sighs once again, but Xenia doesn’t speak. She simply stands still with her arms crossed and face pressed in a tight line. He clicks something once again before putting the datapad down. 

“Getting tossed out of an airlock is the best thing you can hope for, a higher up would like to see you.” 

Xenia grimances at this and continues to stare as the door slams shut and locks. She begins to count in her head. When she hit 232, the door opens again.   
This time, it was not one of the dreary imperial officers she was expecting, but rather an alien clad in white. He was tall, but that wasn’t the first thing that Xenia noticed. The first thing she notices is his cerulean blue skin and deep ruby eyes. 

She's speechless for a second, but stammers out, “I thought the empire didn’t hire nonhumans.”

“Consider me an anomaly then,” his voice was deep, chilling and calculating. “Grand Admiral Thrawn.”

“So we’re doing introductions now? Xenia.” 

“Do you know what you’ve done?” he asks and Xenia freezes. What had she done? In no way was she some valiant soldier, or brilliant tactician working for the rebellion. “Perhaps you should be reminded- Operation Onyx.”

A second of silence, for Xenia to register what he had just told her. Just a second before she's laughing near historically. Operation Onyx, a rebel spy operation that was bound to fail from the start. Xenia had had little to do with it, she had known how doomed it was from the start. It had failed- why does he want something to do with it now?

“You- I can’t I- you think that I was in control of that operation sir?!” She chokes out between a laugh, “No, I wasn’t involved. The operation failed, it was bound to.”

Judging by the way his crimson eyes practically glared at her, Xenia realized she was most likely wrong. 

“Okay- okay. So say the operation was still active? I know nothing about it. They told everyone on the last mission it had failed.” Xenia tosses her hands up in mock surrender. 

“Would you like to say that to an interrogation droid?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is poorly written and also, here's the important part, none of this really fits into canon. consider it kinda like an AU but with the same characters just in weird places they aren't in in canon.

Xenia was scared, and not in fear of death. But rather for what would happen before it. 

She was a good liar, she always had been. Even as a youngling when her mother had chided her for something silly, like hanging out with her friends instead of going to school, she was always able to lie her way out of it. Today would be no different, she would tell them whatever they would take as the truth. 

So as she waited for what was going to be the most likely worst minutes of her life, she closed her eyes and relaxed her expression. One long exhale through her nose and she had completely relaxed her face. 

Then, with however many minutes she had left before they drugged her and drug her to whatever torture chambers the empire held, she practiced the lie in her head. 

‘I’m Xenia Quinn, yes I am a rebel but not a real one. I just needed somewhere to be. I don’t know anything about any of those operations because I wasn’t a part of them? What proof do I have?’

What proof? Well, for a start there was no proof. Was having no proof enough proof in itself? There wasn’t really anytime to think of that. The door to the cell was opening, and in walked two troopers. 

***

Within his days in the empire, Thrawn had seen his fair share of rebels. He reread the mission again, rebels on Kashyyyk to protect the remaining wookies that inhabited the planet from being seized and given to the empire. It made no sense, why would they send a single rebel with no combat training?

Unless, of course, they had her waiting there to relay information to another rebel. 

Xenia Quinn didn’t have much of a track record, the only open information on her was that she was 30 and from some backwater planet on the outer rim. Other than that, there was nothing. That was more suspicious than not, from his short encounter with her he could tell that she was at least educated.

“Sir, the rebel is ready,” A young cadet had alerted Thrawn and led him to the cell.

There the woman lay, strapped into an interrogation chair. She appeared half unconscious, but as soon as he came into her line of sight her eyes sharpened. Xenia was well aware. As fast as her eyes sharpened, her face relaxed and a soft expression covered her. 

Completed with a nervous smile. 

“Things get done fast around here, I thought it would be at least a days time before I would get interrogated,” there was a soft twang of an accent Thrawn didn’t recognize in the woman's voice. 

“Where are you from, Ms. Quinn?”

The question takes Xenia off guard, she blinks slowly before responding, “I’vorcia Prime, sir.”

That wasn’t a lie, she grew up on that ball of rocks. It was nothing but an imperial vacation spot now, part of what had pushed her into the rebellion. She didn't mention that, though. Instead, she tries and keeps her face soft and blank. 

“Interesting, from what I’ve heard, there's no rebel presence on that planet,” Stars, Xenia thinks, he’s better at this than I am. His voice gave away nothing but passive interest. 

Xenia pressed her lips together and hummed in agreement, as she avoided looking at the chiss but rather the interrogation droid behind him.  
“Where did you go to school?”

Something flared up in Xenia, and it wasn’t anger. Maybe pure frustration. Thrawn could tell by the way her eyes narrowed and how she had finally turned to make eye contact. 

“Cut the shit, that isn’t what you want to know,” the twinge of the warm accent was gone, replaced with the cool hardness of an angry woman's voice, “And I don’t have whatever you want to hear.”

“Please, Ms. Quinn. You don’t know my interests, like I know yours,” Thrawn starts to see the cracks in the woman's facade. The way she begins to slow her breathing and almost shrink herself in her restraints, “Where’s Ahsoka Tano?”

“Who?” Almost instantly, confusion slips over her face, she narrows her eyes suspeciously, “Is that a trick question?”

Thrawn exhales slowly, not enough for Xenia to notice but long enough for a moment of silence. Then, he spoke, “You know who.”

It was a cool and calm statement but it shook Xenia. She didn’t show it except for the shifting of her fingers. 

“No,” She whispered, “I don’t. Pray tell me, who is Ahsoka Tano?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> how was it? i dont ever reread what i write- it makes me cringe :/ so if theres tons of typos i would not be suprised.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unedited, un proof-read, this is fanfiction in its most natural form. in the wild.

“I am not a bad person.”

Xenia is alone. She is alone in her cell, legs crossed as she spoke aloud to herself, to assure herself. Under the unwavering artificial light of the ship, she sits still and alone, speaking to herself. 

“I am not a bad person,” she repeats once more. It’s reassurance, reassurance that whatever she had said (or perhaps- hadn’t of said) in that interrogation room, wasn’t that horrible. Maybe she hadn’t put the entire rebellion in danger.   
Even if she had put the rebellion in danger, it wasn’t like they weren’t fucked anyway. As soon as she had joined the rebellion with her mother all those years ago, she realized the growing army was already a lost cause. No one could escape the unforgiving clutches of the empire. 

And then, the Grand Admiral asking about the Jedi. Xenia had the pleasure of meeting Ahsoka one time, during a quick and chaotic briefing. The togruta had a mysterious aura but warm eyes and a soft voice. Xenia could only dream of the horrible things the empire would want with her, so she preferred not to think about the possibilities. 

The woman tugged at the thin jumpsuit that the imperials had swapped out her thick rebel uniform with. She was uncomfortable and twitchy, occasionally making eye contact with the security camera. She sighs and flips the camera at the bird. 

***

“Caption Ty’Rei,” a young human boy, no older than 17, makes his way to the magenta skinned twi’lek leaning on the edge of some sort of cargo container. Worry was pressed in the older woman's face but her eyes softened when she saw the boy, “No reports from Lt. Quinn, she’s officially considered captured by the empire. 

Ty’Rei could’ve figured that out on her own, but still gave the boy an appreciative nod, “Thank you, Dylan.”

The blonde boy scattered off and the scowl returned to Ty’Rei’s face. 

“I doubt they’ve killed your girl, Caption.” There it is, the voice of the elderly jawa poking out from a few below Ty’Rei, “Not yet, she's very useful.”

“And yet,” the Twi’lek turned down to look at the jawa woman, with her piercing yellow eyes and harsh rodent-like features. “Neither is she smart. We can only hope for the best, Yvet.”  
“So, this means we have to save her right?” it's Dylan again, eavesdropping on the older pair of women. Ty’Rei scowls at the boy while Yvet has a somewhat calm expression in return, “We can’t just leave her there!”

“We can and we-”

“We won’t leave her there,” Yvet spoke over Ty’Rei, giving the boy a small smile, “Isn’t that right, caption? You have your own ship, do you not?”

“I am not taking the Wave into imperial space to rescue Xenia. That's final,” a passing moment of silence and the Twi’lek sighs, “Quick. One week mission, we can’t take ourselves off the base for too long.”

The jawa smiles softly, and her eyes glow as the human boy nearly beams, and exclaims, “We’re leaving this base?”

***

Thrawn had a lot to focus on as the one of the top ranked members of the empire. The new prisoner of war gracing one of his ships temporary retainment cells was the least of his problems and was truly a waste of time to think about. 

And it was, until he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Nearly 2 standard days pass and the tired looking woman is still occupying one of the corners of the tactical genius’ mind. He didn’t know why and it frustrated him. She was unimportant, nonessential in the growing rebellion. Anyone could’ve taken her place as a messenger and they would’ve ended up in the same place she was in. Even if the woman was smarter than the average outer rim hick, it wouldn’t matter. 

“Sir,” it's an officer. Thrawn doesn’t know his name but he gives him a curt nod acknowledging his sudden presence in the grand admiral's office, “the most recent rebel captured is missing.”

“Escaped?” he asked, rising from behind his desk.

The younger officer swallows and shakes his head nervously, “No evidence of a forceful escape, sir, most likely a rescue.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lots of new faces in this bit, all coming again dont worry. i like having a big colorful cast of characters in my fics which can make them kinda confusing so apologies in advance


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> doesnt fit into cannon its been so since ive read a thrawn novel

Xenia quickly learned that whatever ship she was on- an ISD perhaps?, was internally connected through a maze of vents. Silver, dark vents just big enough to shimmy through at an agonizing pace. The vents were cold, too, Xenia’s forearms had gone numb hours ago and her legs were close behind. 

As soon as she found another opening she froze. Unlike the last however many openings she had crawled past, this one was silent, absent were the sounds of lingering people or chirping droids. She slowed her breath and leaned closer to the vent, waiting for minutes in complete silence. 

She exhaled, and began to toy with the screws in the vent, slowly loosening them. As she loosened the last screw, she caught the vent cover in her hand, peeling it back just far enough to peer into the room below her.

It was some sort of office, with a wide desk with small statues and trinkets neatly organized on it. The room was dim too, but Xenia caught a glance of some sort of holo that provided some sort of lighting for the room. She grew bolder and peeled the vent completely back, peering in one last time to ensure the room was empty. It was, and with that she made the 12 feet jump to the floor. 

The wind was knocked out of her near completely, the fall was much more than she had anticipated and her landing was much less than graceful. As she rose she realized that the office was much larger, and much more decorated than what she had first gathered. The desk was grand and behind it was the backlit statue of two large serpents. 

Xenia wasn’t looking at the art that covered the room now, instead she was frantically ripping open the drawers behind the desk to find some sort of communication device. The third drawer she rips open, she nearly sighs in relief as she pulls out a small holo comm device. 

It's imperial grade but not too different from anything Xenia had used before. As she sets in on the desk, she immediately keys in the code for the only person she even thought would dare to pull her off this damn ship.

“Hey there, Ty’Rei,” her voice is a shaky attempt at a casual tone, “You know who it is, I’m sending you my coordinates, rescue isn’t necessary but greatly appreciated. Thanks.”

And as soon as she sends the recording, she knocks the comm device off the desk, sending it tumbling to the floor. It breaks into two pieces and immediately turns off but for the sake of destroying any evidence of who she was contacting, Xenia forcefully slams her boot clad foot into the shatter device a few times. 

Seconds after crushing the device into fine glass bits, it dawns to Xenia that she didn’t quite plan out what to do now. She turns back to the now disheveled desk and begins to sift through the contents of the drawers, this time slower and with less frantic intent. 

Most of the objects in the drawers were filled with paperwork, she even found some sort of knife. As she lifted another heavy stack of papers, (which who even uses anymore? Hasn’t the great empire moved past this?) she found exactly what she had been looking for. A small, practical hand blaster. 

“Grand Admiral, sir?” Xenia flinched at the sound of a male voice. She dropped behind the desk, positioning the weapon in her hand, “Sir-”

“Don’t move,” she aimed the weapon at the man. He was short, with golden skin and thick dark hair. His eyes flashed in panic but his body stood still and straight. “Let’s not make this too difficult.”

Xenia’s eyes trailed down to the man's hands, which began to slowly trail up to something clipped to his belt.  
“Don’t-” she hisses sharply and the man tenses up, freezing once more, “I’m going to have to kill you.”

He shook his head, “Why’s that?”

Xenia furrowed her brows, “Why’s that? You’re just going to let me slide out like nothing even happened?” She scoffs, “I’m not that dumb, pretty boy.”

The man takes a cautious step towards Xenia, who doesn’t move and keeps her blaster trained on the center of his chest. If worse came to worst, she wasn’t completely sure if she had the power in her to fire. It would be a test of the moment. 

“I’m Eli, I’m the Grand Admiral's aide,” he offers, as if he was expecting Xenia to relax at knowing his name and purpose. She didn’t, and Eli sighed, “I’m assuming you’re a new prisoner. I never learned your name.”

“It’s Xenia Quinn,” Xenia was so focused on Eli that she hadn’t noticed someone had slipped in behind him. In a moment of pure fear, she shifts her aim to focus on the new intruder, one she briefly recognized as wearing all white with striking blue skin. 

It didn’t matter who it was, she had already pulled the trigger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading babes remember to comment so i can learn to improve xx


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy holidays!! how the fuck do you italicize stuff when you copy and paste from a doc into ao3

“You’re in trouble.”

Xenia groaned as she shifted around on what felt like thin sheets on an even thinner mattress. It took nearly 20 seconds for her to realize where she was, some type of medbay with the awkward beeping on her vitals. The second thing she registered in her trip to consciousness was the medical droid speaking to her. 

“I would assume so,” She groaned. The faint aching pain in her shoulder reminded her of the reason she was even in the medbay. Eli Vanto. Thrawn. She knew the shot she had aimed at him wasn’t near fatal, she had grazed his left arm at best, completely missed at worst. Whatever happened next was a 15 second blur in Xenia’s mind. Someone yelled- Eli maybe. Thrawn had lifted his uninjured arm pistol in hand and fired. Xenia was too slow to react fast enough and was shot just shy of her chest, but straight through her shoulder. And then, she was down, not even making a squeak as she cradled the wound. Xenia had been shot before- sure, with low intensity blasters through thick armor. Never a direct hit like this. 

“Ma’am?” It's the droid again, speaking to her softer now.

“Sorry, repeat that?” Xenia tried to sit up, the bacta had numbed the pain but as she tried to pull up her legs she was abruptly stopped by some type of restraint wrapped around one of her ankles.

“You’re being charged with assualt on a high ranking official, along with your previous domestic terrorism and conspiricy charges,” The droid speaks as Xenia’s eyes shift over her vitals on the screen next to her. 

She shrugs, “If they really meant all those big words they would’ve just let me bleed out on the floor.”

The droid doesn’t reply and she doesn't expect it to, instead Xenia behings to shift blankets and tug at her ankle restraint. 

“If it weren’t for me you’d be out of an airlock right now. Or worse.”

Xenia flinched at the lightly accented, cool voice. The grand admiral was back. She searched for signs of injury in his form but his military posture gave away nothing but power and prowess. 

“This is worse,” She couldn’t tell if she had a deathwish but the grand admiral didn’t seem too keen on killing her either. 

He preyed on her, stalking towards the bed in slow deliberate steps. He paused two feet from the foot of the bed, arms casually still clasped behind his back. There was a tense moment of silence and staring, before it was broken by Thrawn’s voice once again.

“Your mother was a rebel too?” Though it was phrased as a question, the confidence in his tone of voice gave Xenia no option other than to slowly nod in agreement, “The key word here being: was.”

Xenia tensed. It was a matter of time before the empire put together that Xenia Quinn was not the only member of the Quinn family to give the empire trouble. Her mother, Winnie Quinn was a much more prominent rebel soldier than her daughter ever could have dreamed. 

“My mother is dead, I’m not lying,” Xenia grumbles out quietly. Not exactly solemn, but there was a note of something darker in her tone, maybe underlying anger in the mention of her mother, “There’s a file on that, I’m sure of it.”

“Ah yes, there are quite a few in fact,” Thrawn takes another step forward and is now practically hovering over the bed, “But that isn’t why I came, there are more pressing matters for you and I to discuss.”

***

Ty’Rei squinted at her nav device as she sat alone. She has been sitting alone in the only cantina on this backwater planet for well over an hour now, groaning over the coordinates Xenia had sent her. Well, at least she’s still alive. 

The words repeated in her head for the upteenth time, ‘rescue isn’t necessary but greatly appreciated’ 

“You’re troubled.”

Ty’Rei peers up to an older woman leaning over her table, a ghost of a smile on her face. She wore strange clothes, not strange enough to be exotic but the cape thrown over her shoulders made them more than casual. The strangest thing about her was the 2 meter tall staff she held in her left hand, resting on the ground. 

“Um-”

The woman doesn’t wait for a reply and knocks the chair out from the other side of the table with her staff, sitting down and gracefully crossing her hands on the table. 

“I’m Madraykin Finnall,” her voice was soft and deep, gentle and aged, “I can tell something is wrong.”

Ty’Rei stares at the whimsical woman for a solid second before nodding slowly, what was the harm? 

“I’m searching for someone.”

Madraykin hums in agreement, gray eyes peering back at Ty’Rei in now a blazing intensity, “This someone must be in danger.”

The twi’lek nods again, “Imprisoned.”

A sly smile graces the older woman's face, a dry laugh escapes her lips, “I’m not a jedi, you’re going to have to explain more.”

Ty’Rei narrows her eyes, “You planning on helping?”

Madraykin flips a waist length lock of gray hair over her shoulder, leaning back further into her chair, “An enemy of the empire is a friend of mine, Ty’Rei.”

She freezes at the mention of the empire and her name, this was dangerous. She looks back at Madraykin, who had a knowing look on her face. Ty’Rei had heard of such people before, but the claim of not being a jedi was enough to set her off.   
“I’m willing,” Madraykin says, now sounding more genuine. 

Ty’Rei nods, “I can tell.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if the plot of this sounds like a mess its because it is, i am simply just throwing words on a page for fun


	6. memories, one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i liked the memories format of chaos rising oops

A slender woman with silky black hair wrapped up in immaculate order strutted through the hallway with pride. Trailing a step behind her was a younger woman, matching black hair in a frizzy mess. The younger woman's face read much less prideful and much more nervous, but it was obvious who the pair was even with their differences.

Mother and daughter.

“Senior Lieutenant Quinn,” a male pantoran sharply nods as the pair enters the room. He’s alone, standing behind what looks like a holomap of what looks like a rough map of wild space, edging onto the unknown regions. Areas are highlighted in a pale red, stretching farther into the unknown regions than what looked like the size of the galaxy. 

“Please, Relli, it’s just Winnie when we’re here,” Winnie says gently as she slides the door panel shut behind her, her daughter shuffling to the side anxiously. Relli grins and steps back, falling into a more casual posture, “And I’m sure you’ve met Xenia.”

Xenia gives a small nod, she's late into her 20s but in the presence of her mother’s commanding presence felt like a stumbling teen again. The pantoran doesn’t dwell too much on her presence though, and instead turns back to the holomap. 

“Mere days ago activity was detected in the unknown regions once again, this time I can guarantee it’s not just debris,” Relli speaks with conviction and Winnie nods in agreement. Xenia silently groans in her head, she had forgotten just how crazy her mother was. 

Winnie Quinn was a lot of things, a mother, a rebel, a tactical genius. But before anything else, she was batshit crazy. In her free time from attempting to take down the unbeatable empire, she had a pet project of finding said empires hidden secrets. One of those secrets was, what the woman adamantly believed, was the empire was hiding a huge base in the unknown regions. 

Xenia frowned as she listened to her mother and her mother’s comrade drone on about what they believed the base to be, clutching onto what little evidence they had of alien signals from the endless void of the edges of the galaxy. 

Nearly an hour later, the pair is done and Xenia is glad about it, she couldn’t take another second of that nonsense. As the pair leaves the room once more, the door sliding behind them, Xenia finally breaks her silence. 

“It’s impossible to traverse wild space, there are no hyper lanes,” Winnie snorts at this and Xenia cringes at her mothers reaction. Yup, she was insane.

“Nothing is impossible for the empire.”

Xenia shrugged, letting whatever anger she had boiling below the surface for the older woman slip away and instead asked an innocent question, “What if it’s just some alien race we’ve never spoken to?”

“I doubt something so intelligent to have starships would avoid contact with the republic for so long,” Winnie spoke matter of factly. Xenia rolled her eyes and she quietly laughed.

“You never know, mom. You never know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ive been gone for a while, busy and very depressed. but im back and hopefully on track. come talk to me on twitter (@br00tletwt) i'd love to get to know you guys :)

**Author's Note:**

> cringe!!11!1 anyway, thanks for reading babes xx


End file.
